Post by Pavane on May 28, 2010 16:33:48 GMT -5
Characters:
Soto - female Wolf
Niyt - female Wolf Pup
Setting:
Storyteller's Butte - Mid Spring (RL day 5)
This is on the morning after "You will die."
---------------------------------------
Despite being told of her own forthcoming death the night before, Soto seems not bothered, visibly, by anything; laying in the sun, the diamond-marked she-wolf is simply staring ahead of her, watching the desert, and the cactus patch thoughtfully, one ear cocked akimbo to the other in a strange way. She's humming to herself; though not the same atonal noise she'd made the night before; this is more a manner of... soft music, without words.
The morning brings a welcome light over the desert, and a warmth that bathes those resting here. Niyt has slept restlessly, kept close by the side of her parents, but now she awakens fully as the sunlight touches her. She lifts her head, tasting the scents upon the breeze, and then rises to her feet. She stumbles a bit, leaning in against a still-sleeping wolf, but he doesn't awaken. The pup is on her own - no, wait; she hears a sound. Her ears perk, and she starts towards that humming sound.
Eyes continue to just watch the desert; though some moments before Niyt finally finds her, Soto looks up, and over toward the puppy, knowing she's there, yet seeming distracted. She smiles at the puppy, tail wagging, and says, "Oh, hello, little sleeper! ~good morning, good morning, to you!~" She smiles; always a cheerful soul no matter the circumstance, unless one of those strange trances comes over. Perhaps Soto truly is touched in the head.
Niyt approaches the happy-seeming wolf, and wags her tail softly in response to the greeting, and Soto's own wag. The little pup doesn't really understand what's going on, and yet she seems to accept it as part of her world. The wind blows; the pack howls; the spirits come. For the moment, she's more curious about this female wolf - she's seen her around often enough, but she hasn't really investigated her properly. So she pads closer, nose stretched out to sniff curiously.
Soto warbles a few notes without meaning to the pup with some glee at being investigated, and moves to stand, leaning her head down to sniff the pup in return, tail wagging, and ears finally coming both fully forward. "Hello, little seer," she whispers with a smile, "Your daddy is a very powerful wolf, and I hope he will one day teach me things." She smiles, and attempts to lick Niyt in the face.
Niyt tilts her head as she follows those notes. Is this another sort of talking, the pre-verbal pup wonders? Another language, with a different meaning to be learned? In a way, it is; her father may be a seer, but her mother is a singer, after all, and music is a language that can speak strongly to emotions, to the heart as words speak to the mind. She wags her tail slowly, letting Soto lick at her face and then replies, a little sound that starts as a bark but gets drawn out, not quite a howl, not quite a sung note, but touching on the edges of both as she tries to imitate what she has heard.
Ears perk, and Soto beams! "And a little songstress, too! How beautiful!" She chimes happily, before she sits before the pup, and listens, nodding.. before she hmms! "You want to mimic me, little one? Let's try a note that's a little easier!" She grins, and then picks a low, yet still musical note, singing out softly, "~oooooo~..." to the tone of 'Do' on scales, tail wagging a little. Just to see if the pup can follow.
Niyt sits down. Standing up is still something the little pup needs to think about to do, and with her rump firmly on the ground, she can pay more attention to listening and trying to copy. This is easier than speaking-words, in some ways - there's only one thing going on at once, instead of all those quick-changing sounds. She tries to copy Soto, "~Aaooo...~" The note is wavering, quivering past the tone instead of landing on it firmly - and yet when it quivers too far, she adjusts it back towards the right one. She's clearly got some innate sense of pitch, even if it - and her young voice - are quite inexperienced with how to actually work.
"Oooo!" Almost squeals Soto gleefully, "You're a natural! A little off, but I think it was prettier that way!" Her tail wags, and she leaps to her feet, doing that odd little spin bounce of hers, before sitting down again, beaming! "Let's try something a little harder! ~oooo-oooo-ooo~!" She croons, to the scale of do re mi, with tail wagging madly behind her as she attempts to teach the little wolfess before her tones.
Niyt's tail thumps against the sand - Soto's excitement is contagious, and figuring out these sounds is pretty neat too! She wiggles a bit, then takes in a deep breath before trying again to copy the older wolf. "Aaooo-oooaaoooo..." she begins, finding the first note and then wobbling up from it to the next - and then her voice drops again for a moment, before finding the second note once more, a bit more firmly this time. Her muzzle points up towards the sky, and as she lifts her voice to the final note in the set she nearly howls it, landing pure and clear on the note for one single moment before her voice wavers out again.
That single, pure moment of music sends Soto all aflutter, and she's very visibly unable to sit still anymore, leaping to her feet, and running an excited circle around Niyt with a series of happy yips, before she finds her seat again, panting. "Excellent! Excellent! You're going to be a beautiful singer!" She praises, tail wearing a dent in the ground from all the wagging. She beams, then, just gleefully, for no reason, lets out a howl of delight into the air; not thinking about the puppy trying to mimic as much as she is her /glee/ in this puppy.
Niyt grins, getting up and turning in a little circle as Soto chases around her, little paws stumbling over each other. She cocks her head as Soto starts to howl once again, a sound complex and full-throated now, less easy for a little pup to understand and copy than the simple single notes she was giving before. But she tries anyhow, planting her butt back down and letting out her own attempt, joining in before Soto finishes so that for a moment there are two voices carried on the wind, one strong and clear, the other wavering and weaving around it in - not exactly harmony, but not quite discord, either.
The wolfsong causes Soto to beam happily, before she leans in to nuzzle the young pup before her, smiling. "Oh, you're such a good little voice, so strong. Some day, I bet you will be the strongest voice in the rocks!" She wags her tail, and then licks Niyt again across the face happily, before she flops to her side, and bobs a paw above the puppy's head for a play toy for the little rascal.
Ears splay at the lick, and Niyt bounces up a bit to lick at the underside of Soto's muzzle in return, giving her tail a wag. There come words again, with fast sounds that blur together inside Niyt's head. But the tone is nice and happy. It's almost like a singing made less pure, roughened with syllables of speech. The feelings are the same, though, and she's pretty good at hearing that part of it. She gives her talking-bark to Soto, the little placeholder she uses for when a grownup's conversation clearly needs something added, and reaches a little paw up to nudge at that bigger one.
A grin as the paw is touched in return, and Soto coos, "You make me happy, little one!" with tail pounding the earth beneath them again behind her. Then, eager, she moves a paw to pull Niyt closer to lick her ears and face eagerly, "You can be my best, first friend! Would you like that?" She asks, happily, and eagerly, ears cupped forward at the pup. "We'll sing, and dance, and you can meet mother, and I'm sure she'll love you! And maybe my sisters will come back, and you can play with them, too!"
Niyt wags her tail, not understanding those words - but there's an excitement behind them that appeals to the pup, a friendliness that makes her want to join in, to play together! She wiggles underneath those licks, and barks - then barks again - then sings out a note again, holding it for a moment before it trails back into an excited yip! She -really- feels like she's part of this conversation now. Words? Who needs 'em!
Indeed, who needs words when you have expressions, and music? Soto sings out a happy song, letting the puppy go, before rolling to her back, and grinning over at Niyt, waving her paws in the air before her as if running upside down, trying to welcome the pup into playing with her. "I'm really glad to have a friend!" She says, to Niyt, "All I ever had before was my sisters and my mom! But now I have you, you're my first real ever friend who's not just a spirit!" She exclaims, at Niyt, gleefully, before rolling over, dipping into a playbow before the pup and yipping at her.
Niyt barks again, and bounds forward towards Soto. She's quite willing to be friends, with - well, anyone who will play with her, really. Whether that's another puppy, or a grown wolf, or a spirit whispering in her ear... or some combination of them, like spirit-touched Soto, full grown and yet puppishly eager for the childhood friends she never had. Niyt bounds forward and leaps against Soto's muzzle, as though trying to clamber on top of it!
Soto dissolves into eager yipping and giggling at Niyt, holding briefly still for the puppy to climb her head, before beaming, and wiggling all over. "~Friend, Friends, Friends, till the e-end!~" She sings gleefully, moving to raise her head carefully if Niyt is atop it. Hey, let's give the puppy an adult's eye view of the world! As long as Niyt can keep her balance; and if she can't, Soto will be happy to carry her around like a rider on a horse upon her back.
The head's moving! Niyt scrabbles to try and keep her place, her forelegs hooking over Soto's ears, one of her hindpaws poking her in the cheek as she tries to stay. She starts to slide, and she leans down to take a grip with her jaws for a moment - just enough to pull herself up a bit better, and get stable enough that she can start to look around. The world looks different, from up here, all those little rocks that usually lie under her feet so far away now.
Soto beams; she has no problem with holding the pup on high above all the world the little one normally sees from down below, and Soto is careful to slowly move around, keeping her head rigid as best she can, ignoring nips meant to keep Niyt steady, to give the little she-wolf a tour of the Butte from a higher vantage point. "All the world around us has a spirit to it, little one," Soto begins, happily, "From the earth at our feet, to the clouds in the air. You must learn to respect the spirits, even the scary ones like from last night." She smiles.
Niyt perks her ears to listen, her head turning from side to side to take all this in, shifting her position from time to time as she slips a little and has to wriggle up again, looking out over Soto's back. She turns her gaze upwards, and yet the sky seems no closer now than from the ground, though the ground seems further away. It's odd, that; as though the sky is endless. The wind blows over the two wolves, ruffling their fur against each other.
Soto's eyes close and she smiles, tail sweeping side to side a moment, before she pauses, one ear twitching, and then murmurs, "Can you see her, mother? My first friend. She's my best friend ever." Soto says, happily-- but then seems to catch something, and frowns. Carefully she turns, to trot over towards where the Pup had been laying before, then lowers her head for the puppy. ".. Mother needs to talk to me... I think it's private. Can you wait here, my friend?" She says, to Niyt, with a wan smile.
It's not so much that Niyt climbs off, as that she starts to slide off and then keeps going, poking Soto's muzzle with her paws as she tumbles. She wiggles around to her feet, ready to pounce again - and then notices the change in the other wolf's expression, the concern there. So instead of pouncing, she merely leans in with a lick for Soto's nose, and then sits back down, letting her new friend go, for now, to whatever it is that's calling her.
A cheerful smile comes, and Soto licks back at Niyt, saying, "I will be back, and we will dance together, my friend!" She says, tail wagging. Then, she stands, and turns, starting to walk away, toward cacti and the desert, following an unseen voice.
Niyt watches Soto go for a few moments, and then the sight of a small plant swaying in the wind catches her attention, and she turns towards it, ready to pounce and play once again.
Soto - female Wolf
Niyt - female Wolf Pup
Setting:
Storyteller's Butte - Mid Spring (RL day 5)
This is on the morning after "You will die."
---------------------------------------
Despite being told of her own forthcoming death the night before, Soto seems not bothered, visibly, by anything; laying in the sun, the diamond-marked she-wolf is simply staring ahead of her, watching the desert, and the cactus patch thoughtfully, one ear cocked akimbo to the other in a strange way. She's humming to herself; though not the same atonal noise she'd made the night before; this is more a manner of... soft music, without words.
The morning brings a welcome light over the desert, and a warmth that bathes those resting here. Niyt has slept restlessly, kept close by the side of her parents, but now she awakens fully as the sunlight touches her. She lifts her head, tasting the scents upon the breeze, and then rises to her feet. She stumbles a bit, leaning in against a still-sleeping wolf, but he doesn't awaken. The pup is on her own - no, wait; she hears a sound. Her ears perk, and she starts towards that humming sound.
Eyes continue to just watch the desert; though some moments before Niyt finally finds her, Soto looks up, and over toward the puppy, knowing she's there, yet seeming distracted. She smiles at the puppy, tail wagging, and says, "Oh, hello, little sleeper! ~good morning, good morning, to you!~" She smiles; always a cheerful soul no matter the circumstance, unless one of those strange trances comes over. Perhaps Soto truly is touched in the head.
Niyt approaches the happy-seeming wolf, and wags her tail softly in response to the greeting, and Soto's own wag. The little pup doesn't really understand what's going on, and yet she seems to accept it as part of her world. The wind blows; the pack howls; the spirits come. For the moment, she's more curious about this female wolf - she's seen her around often enough, but she hasn't really investigated her properly. So she pads closer, nose stretched out to sniff curiously.
Soto warbles a few notes without meaning to the pup with some glee at being investigated, and moves to stand, leaning her head down to sniff the pup in return, tail wagging, and ears finally coming both fully forward. "Hello, little seer," she whispers with a smile, "Your daddy is a very powerful wolf, and I hope he will one day teach me things." She smiles, and attempts to lick Niyt in the face.
Niyt tilts her head as she follows those notes. Is this another sort of talking, the pre-verbal pup wonders? Another language, with a different meaning to be learned? In a way, it is; her father may be a seer, but her mother is a singer, after all, and music is a language that can speak strongly to emotions, to the heart as words speak to the mind. She wags her tail slowly, letting Soto lick at her face and then replies, a little sound that starts as a bark but gets drawn out, not quite a howl, not quite a sung note, but touching on the edges of both as she tries to imitate what she has heard.
Ears perk, and Soto beams! "And a little songstress, too! How beautiful!" She chimes happily, before she sits before the pup, and listens, nodding.. before she hmms! "You want to mimic me, little one? Let's try a note that's a little easier!" She grins, and then picks a low, yet still musical note, singing out softly, "~oooooo~..." to the tone of 'Do' on scales, tail wagging a little. Just to see if the pup can follow.
Niyt sits down. Standing up is still something the little pup needs to think about to do, and with her rump firmly on the ground, she can pay more attention to listening and trying to copy. This is easier than speaking-words, in some ways - there's only one thing going on at once, instead of all those quick-changing sounds. She tries to copy Soto, "~Aaooo...~" The note is wavering, quivering past the tone instead of landing on it firmly - and yet when it quivers too far, she adjusts it back towards the right one. She's clearly got some innate sense of pitch, even if it - and her young voice - are quite inexperienced with how to actually work.
"Oooo!" Almost squeals Soto gleefully, "You're a natural! A little off, but I think it was prettier that way!" Her tail wags, and she leaps to her feet, doing that odd little spin bounce of hers, before sitting down again, beaming! "Let's try something a little harder! ~oooo-oooo-ooo~!" She croons, to the scale of do re mi, with tail wagging madly behind her as she attempts to teach the little wolfess before her tones.
Niyt's tail thumps against the sand - Soto's excitement is contagious, and figuring out these sounds is pretty neat too! She wiggles a bit, then takes in a deep breath before trying again to copy the older wolf. "Aaooo-oooaaoooo..." she begins, finding the first note and then wobbling up from it to the next - and then her voice drops again for a moment, before finding the second note once more, a bit more firmly this time. Her muzzle points up towards the sky, and as she lifts her voice to the final note in the set she nearly howls it, landing pure and clear on the note for one single moment before her voice wavers out again.
That single, pure moment of music sends Soto all aflutter, and she's very visibly unable to sit still anymore, leaping to her feet, and running an excited circle around Niyt with a series of happy yips, before she finds her seat again, panting. "Excellent! Excellent! You're going to be a beautiful singer!" She praises, tail wearing a dent in the ground from all the wagging. She beams, then, just gleefully, for no reason, lets out a howl of delight into the air; not thinking about the puppy trying to mimic as much as she is her /glee/ in this puppy.
Niyt grins, getting up and turning in a little circle as Soto chases around her, little paws stumbling over each other. She cocks her head as Soto starts to howl once again, a sound complex and full-throated now, less easy for a little pup to understand and copy than the simple single notes she was giving before. But she tries anyhow, planting her butt back down and letting out her own attempt, joining in before Soto finishes so that for a moment there are two voices carried on the wind, one strong and clear, the other wavering and weaving around it in - not exactly harmony, but not quite discord, either.
The wolfsong causes Soto to beam happily, before she leans in to nuzzle the young pup before her, smiling. "Oh, you're such a good little voice, so strong. Some day, I bet you will be the strongest voice in the rocks!" She wags her tail, and then licks Niyt again across the face happily, before she flops to her side, and bobs a paw above the puppy's head for a play toy for the little rascal.
Ears splay at the lick, and Niyt bounces up a bit to lick at the underside of Soto's muzzle in return, giving her tail a wag. There come words again, with fast sounds that blur together inside Niyt's head. But the tone is nice and happy. It's almost like a singing made less pure, roughened with syllables of speech. The feelings are the same, though, and she's pretty good at hearing that part of it. She gives her talking-bark to Soto, the little placeholder she uses for when a grownup's conversation clearly needs something added, and reaches a little paw up to nudge at that bigger one.
A grin as the paw is touched in return, and Soto coos, "You make me happy, little one!" with tail pounding the earth beneath them again behind her. Then, eager, she moves a paw to pull Niyt closer to lick her ears and face eagerly, "You can be my best, first friend! Would you like that?" She asks, happily, and eagerly, ears cupped forward at the pup. "We'll sing, and dance, and you can meet mother, and I'm sure she'll love you! And maybe my sisters will come back, and you can play with them, too!"
Niyt wags her tail, not understanding those words - but there's an excitement behind them that appeals to the pup, a friendliness that makes her want to join in, to play together! She wiggles underneath those licks, and barks - then barks again - then sings out a note again, holding it for a moment before it trails back into an excited yip! She -really- feels like she's part of this conversation now. Words? Who needs 'em!
Indeed, who needs words when you have expressions, and music? Soto sings out a happy song, letting the puppy go, before rolling to her back, and grinning over at Niyt, waving her paws in the air before her as if running upside down, trying to welcome the pup into playing with her. "I'm really glad to have a friend!" She says, to Niyt, "All I ever had before was my sisters and my mom! But now I have you, you're my first real ever friend who's not just a spirit!" She exclaims, at Niyt, gleefully, before rolling over, dipping into a playbow before the pup and yipping at her.
Niyt barks again, and bounds forward towards Soto. She's quite willing to be friends, with - well, anyone who will play with her, really. Whether that's another puppy, or a grown wolf, or a spirit whispering in her ear... or some combination of them, like spirit-touched Soto, full grown and yet puppishly eager for the childhood friends she never had. Niyt bounds forward and leaps against Soto's muzzle, as though trying to clamber on top of it!
Soto dissolves into eager yipping and giggling at Niyt, holding briefly still for the puppy to climb her head, before beaming, and wiggling all over. "~Friend, Friends, Friends, till the e-end!~" She sings gleefully, moving to raise her head carefully if Niyt is atop it. Hey, let's give the puppy an adult's eye view of the world! As long as Niyt can keep her balance; and if she can't, Soto will be happy to carry her around like a rider on a horse upon her back.
The head's moving! Niyt scrabbles to try and keep her place, her forelegs hooking over Soto's ears, one of her hindpaws poking her in the cheek as she tries to stay. She starts to slide, and she leans down to take a grip with her jaws for a moment - just enough to pull herself up a bit better, and get stable enough that she can start to look around. The world looks different, from up here, all those little rocks that usually lie under her feet so far away now.
Soto beams; she has no problem with holding the pup on high above all the world the little one normally sees from down below, and Soto is careful to slowly move around, keeping her head rigid as best she can, ignoring nips meant to keep Niyt steady, to give the little she-wolf a tour of the Butte from a higher vantage point. "All the world around us has a spirit to it, little one," Soto begins, happily, "From the earth at our feet, to the clouds in the air. You must learn to respect the spirits, even the scary ones like from last night." She smiles.
Niyt perks her ears to listen, her head turning from side to side to take all this in, shifting her position from time to time as she slips a little and has to wriggle up again, looking out over Soto's back. She turns her gaze upwards, and yet the sky seems no closer now than from the ground, though the ground seems further away. It's odd, that; as though the sky is endless. The wind blows over the two wolves, ruffling their fur against each other.
Soto's eyes close and she smiles, tail sweeping side to side a moment, before she pauses, one ear twitching, and then murmurs, "Can you see her, mother? My first friend. She's my best friend ever." Soto says, happily-- but then seems to catch something, and frowns. Carefully she turns, to trot over towards where the Pup had been laying before, then lowers her head for the puppy. ".. Mother needs to talk to me... I think it's private. Can you wait here, my friend?" She says, to Niyt, with a wan smile.
It's not so much that Niyt climbs off, as that she starts to slide off and then keeps going, poking Soto's muzzle with her paws as she tumbles. She wiggles around to her feet, ready to pounce again - and then notices the change in the other wolf's expression, the concern there. So instead of pouncing, she merely leans in with a lick for Soto's nose, and then sits back down, letting her new friend go, for now, to whatever it is that's calling her.
A cheerful smile comes, and Soto licks back at Niyt, saying, "I will be back, and we will dance together, my friend!" She says, tail wagging. Then, she stands, and turns, starting to walk away, toward cacti and the desert, following an unseen voice.
Niyt watches Soto go for a few moments, and then the sight of a small plant swaying in the wind catches her attention, and she turns towards it, ready to pounce and play once again.